Injured Syracuse Chiefs starting pitcher Garrett Mock took the mound against Pawtucket on Friday night hoping for the best.

He fell far short of that. He lost the gamble that he could be an effective pitcher with a groin injury, and the Chiefs lost a game that had all the beauty of regurgitated road kill.
Mock set the tone for a wild night for the Chiefs staff as the Red Sox literally walked to an 8-2 win over Syracuse at Alliance Bank Stadium.

Mock’s smeared line consisted of a balk, two hits allowed, seven walks, three earned runs and 91 pitches in 3 2/3 innings. Overall, the Chiefs’ staff walked 11 and uncorked two wild pitches.

Mock said he suffered the groin ailment in his first start of the season, April 9 at Lehigh Valley. He said he thought he could work through that problem on Friday but the injury prevented him from getting the proper torque and arm angle on his off-speed stuff.

“If I can walk, I figure I can pitch,’’ Mock said. “I hate making excuses. I take the ball, there’s an agreement there. I’ve never walked seven guys. It was one of those guys where I wish I could hurry up and fall asleep and worry about tomorrow.’’

Mock (0-1) said that he felt bad for his fielders, who were denied the chance to get on and off the field quickly and take refuge next to the dugout heater. He said he doesn’t think his injury will cause him to miss a start.

“The way the game played out, it was definitely sloppy on my part,’’ he said. “I definitely need to come out and be more crisp in my next outing.’’

Red Sox starter Andrew Miller won’t be hanging his effort in any museum, either. He threw 82 pitches and walked four in four innings, further dragging out the first half of a game that was interminable to start with because of the raw weather.

The difference was that the Chiefs couldn’t put the knockout punch on Miller, while the Red Sox chipped away at Mock and reliever Matt Chico.

Leading 3-0 after five, Pawtucket busted the game open with a four-run sixth. Chico surrendered a leadoff single to Ryan Kalish, and he trotted home on Yamaico Navarro’s triple. Three batters – and two walks – later, Lee Hyde replaced Chico with the bases loaded.

Hyde promptly walked Drew Sutton, forcing home Navarro to make it 5-0. Hyde uncorked a wild pitch to allow Josh Reddick to score, and Tony Thomas’ single drove in Lars Anderson to change the scoreboard to 7-0.

Mock threw 24 pitches in the first, but that was a breeze compared to his gruesome third. He retired the first two hitters but walked three a row to load the bases. He then issued a fourth straight free pass, to Anderson, forcing home Navarro with the first run of the game.

“I thought he pitched around the plate,’’ Syracuse manager Randy Knorr said of Mock. “We felt he had a chance to work his way out of it. He just ran out of pitches.’’

The Red Sox, and then home plate ump D.J. Reyburn, mercifully ended Mock’s night an inning later. Mock gave up a pair of walks sandwiched around a single to load the bases. Chico came on in relief, and Reddick greeted him with an RBI single. Chico handed a bases-loaded freebie to Daniel Nava, bringing home Luis Exposito to make it 3-0.

Mock didn’t like what he saw of Reyburn from the dugout any more than his view from the mound. Mock barked at the ump after coming out, and Reyburn quickly told him to hit the clubhouse.

“I ended up telling the home plate umpire how I felt about the game,’’ Mock said. “It was a heat of the moment thing. I’ve never been ejected in my life.’’

Other than that rumbling, the Chiefs were quiet until the seventh when Jhonatan Solano’s two-run homer gave Syracuse the moral victory of avoiding a shutout.